Personalization Is Still Lacking And Shoppers Are Getting Frustrated

About 71% of shoppers surveyed by customer data platform firm Segment admit to having been frustrated by shopping experiences they deemed impersonal, according to the company’s 2017 State of Personalization Report. The survey of 1,006 U.S. adults also found that 54% of shoppers expect to receive a personalized discount within 24 hours of identifying themselves, and 32% expect a discount after just one hour. The survey found retailers that strive to provide personalized experiences will be rewarded, as 44% of consumers surveyed said they likely would become repeat buyers after personalized experiences. Still, only 22% of consumers actually find their retail shopping experience to be highly personalized. There is not much excuse for a “personalization gap,” as Segment and other companies have called it, to still exist. Retail has been radically disrupted by Amazon, a company that has used personalized product recommendations and other forms of personalization to build its empire, and as stores fight for their survival, it should be a no-brainer to do something in this vein. As the Segment survey noted, there is a big payoff for retailers that manage to keep pace with shoppers’ expectations for personalization. Not only will they become repeat buyers, but 49% of those surveyed said they have purchased a product they did not intend to buy after receiving a personalized recommendation from a brand. Read more at Retail Dive.